Warner's remaining HD DVD support will include a three week delay?
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jan 11th 2008 1:21PM
posted Jan 11th 2008 1:21PM
In Warner's press release stating they'd go Blu-ray exclusive, they also indicated that HD DVD titles would not be released day and date with Blu-ray titles. During the conference call after the release, someone asked what the delay would be and at the time Warner said they were still working out the details. Well, Format War Central noticed that Amazon is showing a three week delay for Warner's new title The Invasion. It doesn't seem like too much of a jump to assume that this will be the policy moving forward, but we've contacted Warner for confirmation, so stay tuned.**UPDATE** Warner has responded and says the delay might vary depending on the title and that it provides retailers a chance to educate consumers about Warner's decision to go Blu-ray exclusive.
Who cares!?
certainly not me. All I want to know is when I can get my hands on Matrix, V for Vendetta, and Lord of the Rings. Why is it so hard to give people a fucking date?
People who want their movies as fast as possible will care. I don't see that Warner has any technical reason for this delay, although there are clear business and financial reasons they might do it.
Anyone know the logic behind this three-week delay? I understand they are being nice giving people a four-month notice on this, but why bother w/ the three-week delay? I guess I don't see the point. You've already killed the HD-DVD format w/ the announcement, so that can't be it.
Anyone wise enough to weigh in?
I would assume that it's because they've already produced the HD DVDs, so they want to try to sell off the stock of them before they go Blu Ray exclusive. That's the only reason I can see considering I don't think they had any kind of contract to support HD DVD.
Sorry I definately misread the question and was answering as to why keep supporting for four months. As to the three week delay, I would assume that Warner did take some kind of profit from switching. It's the business world and to think otherwise would be naiive. So I'm guessing that Sony wanted some kind of advantage over HD DVD during the 4 month dual support period and it was worked into the deal to give blu ray the edge in their support. But what I don't understand is, if Warner really wanted to end the format war like they said because it is better for the consumer, why wait the four months. If they really want to standardize for the customer's sake, they shouldn't sell a product that they are attempting to make obsolete to the uninformed person who doesn't know about what's happening in the format war.
I was considering the possibility that they wanted to support both but didn't want to take the support calls for all three formats at the same time. After a few weeks the support calls for Blu-Ray might die down and they can focus on the calls for the HD-DVD side. I don't believe they have already made the HD-DVD movies five months out as nobody wants to hold inventory, especially something you can't even ship and recognize revenue on.
Other than that, maybe this is an effort to see just how many dedicated HD-DVD owners there are out there. Anyone who is BD exclusive or purple even will surely purchase the Blu-Ray while anyone who buys the HD-DVD version is surely an HD-DVD "exclusive" consumer and aims to remain that way.
That said, I'll wait a few weeks to pick up my HD-DVD copies. If I've waited months for a movie to be released on disk I can wait a few extra weeks to get it in the format I want. I mean, I wait for the DVD rather than just download it today so why not wait until it's available in HD-DVD rather than buy it in DVD?
Bascily, Warner wants people to start loosing interest in HD-DVD and start adopting Blu Ray. If people see titles for warner first and not on HD-DVD, they will start to get the point. IMHO
Good news. Blu-ray is the priority.
Good news. Blu-ray is the priority.
1 week, even two, but three weeks??? Man, that's just adding insult to injury.
I understand they're switching, but do they really need to be quite so mean spirited with the lieing to us just before Christmas, and now such huge delays?
Fine with me... Warner doesn't want my money... they would rather have Sony's. There will be another format in 5-10 years, either downloads (which all the idiots who claim won't work currently... HELLO, HD on Xbox Live) or Holographic discs etc...
But regardless I won't purchase an ounce of Warner Material (DVD, HD DVD or Blu-ray), as there is plenty content eleswhere. Warner not the consumer choose the format atleast Paramount, Disney or Universal didn't pretend otherwise.
LJKelley
No, I'm pretty sure the "consumers" choose the format if you want to look at volume. When you sell the same content on two formats, and one format always outsells the other by a wide margin, how can that not be the market dictating the format of choice??
And you are seriously not going to buy Warner's movies just because they ended the war? Could you be any more bitter.. well, your loss. I'll enjoy all my BD movies...
HMM just published the numbers for 1st week of Jan (right before the CES), with both sides having a Bogo on Amazon, and both sides having exclusive releases (Blu/ RE:E & WAR, HDDVD/ Zodiac).
Another solid 65:35 week for Blu Ray (probably the last week ever under 7x:2x for this ratio).
From there, with the anounce of Warner support, and entire weeks without -anything- on HD DVD or a delayed release from Warner, it's a free fall for Tosh's format in the numbers imho.
glad i dont have to wait for movies from wb.... invasion is already up on xbox live.
I agree with the whole why lie to the consumer for the months leading up to the holiday shopping season and then dropping the axe on HD-DVD support. No matter how hard you try to spin it that interest of the consumer was not considered otherwise warner would remain format neutral. But the interest of the consumer never was really considered or we would have had 1 format and called it Blu-DVD. Doesn't really matter though since digital downloads are really going to be knocking on Blu-ray and HD-DVD's doors very soon! Like previous post have said, does it really matter who wins the battle if they are both going to lose the war?
Does that mean 3 weeks before the deadline that they'll stop releasing new movies and for the last 3 weeks they'll just release movies already released on Blu-ray?
That's a really good question because that either means the whole exclusive thing really starts almost a month before, or after the May cutoff... what gives?
I really don't think downloading movies will take over yet. It takes too long to download a movie still, and most people would rather have something that they can hold after they buy it. I think this is specifically relevant to the movie idustry because if you want to watch a movie you own and bring it to a friends house to watch, you can only do that with a disc. If you're bored and want to rent a movie with friends, you can do that in ten minutes by going down to blockbuster. Downloading your HD Movies will probably stay, but only because it barely costs anything to keep the business going and it will stay for the small amount of support it will have when this format war is over and most people are still buying their movies in disc format. Most people don't have 50 GBs of space to give to a movie on their hard drive. And even if you get a specific hard drive for movies, if you had 100 of them, that would take 5 TBs of space. That is not realistic. Not to mention downloading a 50 Gig file isn't what the average person wants to wait for to watch a movie. I would like to mention that I have never downloaded an HD movie, so I'm only speculating on how it's done and how long it would take. If I'm wrong, I'd be happy to be filled in on how it's actually done.
PS - engadget. This is the worst posting system ever, and this will probably be my last post until you decide to fix it. There are so many double posts, and times when I can't get my post to go through. This whole email post activation has to stop. I don't care about spamming because it's less of a hassle than this bullshit.
This seems like Warner REALLY wants this war to end...
Not only did they abandon HDDVD, it appears like they are trying to cripple it while they are still under contract.
Yup, they sure are letting the consumer choose. What a load of crap. If they want to push Blu-Ray, then just say it and do it. But they'll do this and then in a couple of months they'll do a PR spin saying, look at how poorly the HD-DVD titles did in comparison, see we were right? And then all the BD fanboys will jump up and down and scream like monkeys.
IF WB is so convinced that HD-DVD is dead, just release all the upcoming titles and have a firesale, let the HD-DVD folk pick up their dead format and just move on to the AAA titles on BD that we've all been waiting for. Who the FRAK cares when Invasion is coming out?
You need to realize one little important fact, timmy. At least Warner is supporting HD DVD for an extra 4 months. This is in contrast to the douche bags at Paramount that swiftly ceased all Blu-ray support and production the second they cashed their $150 Million dollar check from Toshiba.
You need to realize one little important fact, timmy. At least Warner is supporting HD DVD for an extra 4 months. This is in contrast to the douche bags at Paramount that swiftly ceased all Blu-ray support and production the second they cashed their $150 Million dollar check from Toshiba.
You need to realize one little important fact, timmy. At least Warner is supporting HD DVD for an extra 4 months. This is in contrast to the douche bags at Paramount that swiftly ceased all Blu-ray support and production the second they cashed their $150 Million dollar check from Toshiba.
And now for the real answer as to why Warner is delaying HD DVD movies. Once you make a switch like this you usually reorganize your production pipeline, move people around and prioritize your work and release schedule. Warner is simply transitioning their people and processes to Blu-ray only and as such their main efforts are on Blu-ray production.
And now for the real answer as to why Warner is delaying HD DVD movies. Once you make a switch like this you usually reorganize your production pipeline, move people around and prioritize your work and release schedule. Warner is simply transitioning their people and processes to Blu-ray only and as such their main efforts are on Blu-ray production.
As usual, this lame comment system is borked once again. Hey, engadget, why don't you buy some real software?
Paramount got paid, and IMMEDIATELY abandoned BD.
Warner gives a 4 month lead, and with denials, HD-DVD fans claim they were paid. Huh? If Sony/BD really did pay, and really did pay 3x as much as Paramount was paid (rumors claim $.5 BILLION!), then you can bet anything that for that much, Sony would have required an INSTANT stop to HD-DVD.
This scenario really shows that Warner wants to push BD, while allowing a transition period for HD-DVD. This is not the business plan of a company that was "bought".
Again, you're delusional if you think Sony wasn't paid off. Warner supported HD-DVD from the very beginning, they didn't just flip sides on a whim. Sony has *a lot* of money why would they *not* offer a financial incentive? Whether you like it or not, Sony wrote the bigger check. End of story.
Or maybe it's because the BD version of Harry Potter is in the top ten list but the HD-DVD version didn't make the cut.
John... You are an idiot. Multiple sources have confirmed they are under NO obligation whatsoever to continue to release HD-DVD movies. And are we a bit pissy about HD-DVD taking a dive? regardless of what format you bought, at least you can maintain some dignity and self-respect. Your comments are those of a fucking child who didn't get his way. "Blu-balls"? ha, that is original.
The phenomenon of "fan-boys" supporting profit-driven corporate entities as if they are deities will always baffle me. A sociologist should study pathetic people like you...
Once we all go format neutral what are all the fanboys going to whine about then?